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Fish imports are `absolute lunacy’

TASMANIA’s Atlantic salmon industry could be wiped out overnight if the
Australian quarantine authorities agree to Canada and the US’s requests to
export raw salmon to Australia. Nigel Forteath from the department of
aquaculture at the University of Tasmania told the ANZAAS meeting in Canberra
that the proposal was “absolute lunacy”.

The Australian industry, worth about A&dollar;70 million (£35 million)
a year, is disease-free and vulnerable to any bacterial or viral diseases
carried in the raw fish from North America, he said. “The disease could spread
to native fish, such as trout.”

Canada made its bid to export salmon to Australia in 1994, and the US
followed shortly after. The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service is
conducting an inquiry into what would happen if the raw salmon were imported.
“We see this as a very real threat,” said Owen Carington Smith, chairman of the
Tasmanian Salmonid Growers Association. “There are plenty of people in Canberra
who believe in free trade. They don’t think of the consequences. Canadian salmon
has 23 diseases our salmon does not have, including 15 that are found in the
muscle or blood of raw fish.”

Forteath said that the bacterial infection salmon furunculosis could wipe out
100 000 fish overnight. Norway imported immature Scottish salmon to keep up with
demand. But along with the juvenile fish came salmon furunculosis, which attacks
fishes’ kidneys. Tonnes of antibiotic were needed to control the disease, he
said.

The Australian industry, which started in the 1960s, has never had to use
antibiotics to protect its salmon. “The rest of the world is highly envious,”
says Forteath. “We couldn’t compete with other salmon producing nations if we
needed antibiotics.”